The present invention pertains to the data processing art and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for the selective analysis of scanned data.
Numerous systems are known to the prior art which provide a means to analyze scanned data. One such prior art system which particularly relates to the instant invention pertains to nondestructive testing of materials. Here, a transducer scans the material under test in a raster pattern to insure coverage of the area of interest. The detected output of the transducer is then used to drive a two level facsimile recorder. A reference level is set in the recorder. For transducer outputs above and below this level corresponding light and dark areas are formed on the recorder. If, on a given scan, the programmed reference level does not yield the desired material information, a new level is entered and the scan is run again. Thus, for a complete profile of the material several scans must be run.
Further, once a scan is run it is often desirable to do a statistical analysis on selected areas of the material scan. In the prior art now and heretofore, techniques have been developed for sectioning off regularly shaped, generally square, sections of a scan in selecting the data points therein. In many applications, it is desirable to be able to select any given area of the scan for statistical analysis of the data points contained therein.